Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Agatha Christie’s 125th birthday

BBC Culture, one of six
bespoke feature sections on BBC.com announced its first short story commission
today [September 15, 2015]. Written by Kate Mosse, ‘Eleven Days’ celebrates the
125th anniversary of the birth of Dame Agatha Christie.

Agatha Christie is the
best-selling novelist of all time and the world’s best-selling mystery writer,
as well as Britain’s most popular author.

Kate took her inspiration
for the short story from the eleven days in December 1926 when Christie
went missing. Her disappearance sparked one of the largest manhunts in history.
Kate’s story is about celebrity, about the ways in which writers use their own
experiences in their fiction, and an attribute to the Queen of Crime.

A life-long fan of
Christie’s work, Kate has revealed in previous interviews that when she
is writing, the only author she can read is Agatha Christie;

“All
the novels and short story collections, plays, I've read over and over.
They've kept me company all my reading, then writing, life, so I was delighted
to be asked. I didn't want to speculate about what might have happened or
to put words into Agatha Christie's mouth, so instead I tried to imagine
what it might have been like to be involved on the sidelines.”

Available exclusively on bbc.com/culture, the story features bespoke illustrations by Owen
Gatley, a freelance illustrator who has previously worked with a variety of
international clients, including The New York Times, Adidas, The Guardian,
Google, ASOS, GQ and The Independent.

Matthew Anderson, Editor of
BBC Culture, says:

“We were looking for a
special way to mark the Agatha Christie anniversary in 2015 and what better way
than to have Kate Mosse, another internationally best-selling crime writer,
re-imagine Christie’s real-life mystery?”

“We’re thrilled Kate agreed
to write this thoughtful and original piece for BBC Culture and we’re sure fans
across the globe will enjoy reading Kate’s take on those eventful eleven days.”

BBC Culture launched in the
spring of 2013 and became available to UK audiences earlier this year.The site reaches around 3 million unique
browsers every month.It offers fans an
alternative lens on global trends across the arts, through a rich mix of
videos, images and editorial content from an array of well-known and respected
writers and commentators. The
story is part of a new series called BBC Britain that was launched across all
of the feature sections in June.